


Rain check

by CLSarah



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s03e15 Coda, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 00:29:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20282401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CLSarah/pseuds/CLSarah
Summary: J/C acting like humans is sometimes a good thing...





	Rain check

The water has cooled as it always does. The only place she can think. The only place she can ever feel alone. Dunk under and hear the water rushing around her as she adds additional warmth. She surfaces after a long moment and hears movement in the other room.

"Don't be alarmed," he calls. "I know your finishing up and I thought I’d get started on our dinner.”

She chuckles to herself while pouring scented bubbles into her water.

"Not the worst idea I've heard today." Her deep throaty voice calls to the other room. "Come in here," she beckons to him in a voice that leaves him both confused and intrigued. He appears in the doorway with his arms crossed and leans against the frame. His expression is charmed but also betrays a hint of trepidation. 

"Kathryn, I didn't come here to spy on you in the bath. I insist my intentions are pure." He smiles at his own jovial words but looks down at the floor with what Kathryn could only identify as a boyish grin. The bubbles cover her nakedness but the intimacy of the location and knowledge at her state of undress do nothing to dispel the tension.

"Chakotay..." She begins. She sounds slightly more breathless than she intended. "This is my sanctuary, as I think you already know, come sit and talk to me. I am always alone here. I prefer it usually but tonight I find that the need to invite my, my friend into my space for some company is overwhelming." She looks to the side and away from his gaze that she realizes has returned to her face, then continues, "Although you did break into my quarters..." She is cut off when he abruptly moves forward and walks to the wall opposite the tub. He slides his body down the wall slowly as he studies her face. He rests on the floor and stretches his legs out, crossed at the ankles. His hands are resting in his lap. His movements are decisive but his face does not convey any confidence. 

He takes in the room around him. He has been in it a few times during their weekly dinners but never with her of course. He settles back and closes his eyes. He quirks a smile but his eyes remain closed. He finally speaks again, "I did break in..." His voice trails off and then he slowly opens his eyes. Suddenly serious he tells her, "After today, I didn't feel like a deviant intruder in doing so. I felt like I wanted to be here, needed to be here, as soon as I could. A chime felt too formal somehow."

"I know what you mean," she speaks wistfully as she brings her arms up to rest on the sides of her tub. "It seems to take quite a lot of near-death theatrics to get us to see things a little more clearly."

"We are in a difficult situation," He tells her.

"No!" she says a little harshly. "I am in a difficult situation or at least that is what I say to keep you at arm’s length." She stares at the ceiling as she rushes out the words.

"Kathryn, it's nothing I blame you for if that's what you are getting at." Now his is gesturing with his hands open in the air to convey no ill-will. "I was surprised to get your invitation and then somehow it just came to me that we needed something more." He shrugs a little at his last words.

"Yes I know. No argument here.” She smiles at him across the small space of her bathroom. “You know I was thinking about Indiana and the games I would play at dusk with my sister in our yard. We would end our summer evenings laying in the grass looking up at the stars. Sometimes my father would see us out the window and join us. No words exchanged, just a knowing feeling passing between us, an understanding that we are part of something, larger than us that we don’t understand.”

Chakotay smiles at her memory. They lapse into a comfortable silence themselves then. Each feeling safe having their own private thoughts in the presence of each other. 

“Well,” Kathryn begins breaking the spell at bit. “I will have to dry this hair of mine before enjoying the delicious meal you are about to make.”

“I can take a hint.” He answers as he pushes off of the floor. “Don’t bother drying your hair. It’s not necessary.” He says this as if she will infer the rest and somehow, she does. He looks at her in a way she doesn’t think he has allowed himself to previously. He takes a breath as if to speak again but then decides perhaps words are not needed. His eyes convey his affections. He heads to the other room and suddenly Kathryn can’t get out to him fast enough. She doesn’t dry her hair and only combs it out a bit. She puts on her robe and slippers, a choice that keeps with the intimacy of their evening. Not a presumptuous move by any means, he has seen her in it dozens of time. 

She reaches the other room and he takes her in for a brief moment. He is in only his Starfleet tank and uniform pants working at a leisurely pace to set an elegant table. She sits down and watches him with her elbow on the table and her hand on her cheek. 

Dinner is a comfortable and familiar event. They steal glances at each other as they enjoy their meal. She gets up to start to clear the dishes and he holds up a hand. “Leave it,” he tells her. Then adds a soft, “please.”

He moves wordlessly to couch. He sits on it, partially reclined. He inclines his head slightly to invite her to join him. She sits between his legs and reclines back as well. She feels his chest, strong and reassuring, at her back and his arms wrap around her instinctively. They sit this way for a long time that somehow feels to both of them that it will be over too soon.

“Kathryn,” he says quietly. His breath is in her hair and his hands are stroking up and down her arms. “I need to touch you. To hold you and feel you alive underneath of me. I can’t stop thinking…” he trails off. She hears him swallow loudly and from the tremble in his voice she can tell there are most likely tears streaming down his cheeks. She thinks back to earlier. She fights back her own tears and nods into his chest as she pulls the tie on her robe. 

He slips his hand inside and roams around her upper body like he is searching for an answer. She squirms and sighs with pleasure, pressing herself back against him, and that is the answer he needs. 

The evening on her couch stretches out into the next morning. Their time is spent feeling every moment, insatiable longing guiding their explorations. They know they are every bit the reckless explores and determined survivors that they live their lives as. This is somehow no different. As the morning arrives, they lay in each other’s arms content that the realness of it all is, for once, like a guiding light to them both.

She thinks back briefly to the previous day. Their walk to the holodeck. How he turned to her just as she was about to start her program. “Hey, listen…it’s been a long day. I have an idea for us. Why don’t you go back and take a nice long bath then how about I make you dinner? I wouldn’t mind spending an evening, without distraction, celebrating with you in the quiet of your quarters. This program sounds wonderful but…”

She looks him dead in the eyes with a smirk on her face. “But…you’ll take a rain check?” She finished with amused sarcasm. 

He closes he eyes briefly and smiles, “Yes. We need something real.”

She had nodded at that. For once, not jumping at a crewman passing by. “I see. I have to say that sounds like what I might need too. I will get you on Lake George sometime soon though, Commander.”

They had made their way back to deck three and he had patted her arm as they reached her door. He looked into her eyes with a shy expression. She felt that things are about to get very real, “I’ll be by soon Kathryn.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that you enjoyed and thank you for reading! I love this episode but always felt the end was just a little too chipper after what just occurred.


End file.
